Barotrauma is a survival horror, post-apocalyptic 2D submarine simulator for up to 16 players in multiplayer that pits these many brave souls up against humanity's new home, Jupiter's Moon. Despite the close proximity within the submarine, the desperation for survival amongst the underwater monsters constantly looking to destroy the shuttle, and greed of completing each mission for a payout, humans on board the ship may be equally as dangerous as the monsters outside....
Barotrauma features 6 unique jobs in a submarine beneath the underwater environment of Europa, where players control their completely custom-created character in a rage-doll physics gameplay system amongst other players all seeking survival through teamwork, cooperation, and character progression through staying alive as long as possible. Stay onboard the submarine as you travel long distances, but you'll be required to park and leave into the unknown seabed to explore underwater dungeons and remnants of alien life.
Barotrauma Talents
Among Barotrauma's 6 unique jobs as described earlier, players are able to further differentiate their characters by learning a wide variety of talents to increase the potency of their character and their usefulness to the sub. After gaining enough experience, players are continually able to "level up" essentially and take additional talents, further progressing their character down the talent tree, or choosing to flesh out the skills of lower difficulty.
These talents are incredibly helpful and are among the most fun portions of Barotrauma as a whole, continually separating each new character from the last and vastly changing a multiplayer playthrough. These skills decide much of a player's gameplay experience: pushing the Medical Doctor to tend to the wounds of his teammates in a timely fashion; encouraging the Security Officer to solve all his problems with violence; and letting the Assistant...uhh do whatever?
Barotrauma Game with Friends
As made very obvious by the ragdoll physics of the game and interview video on Steam, despite it's survival horror genre, it almost never plays out in a very serious fashion while playing with friends. It can have genuinely scary situations due to the dark colors of Europa, and the horrifying creatures that lurk within the waters outside of the submarine, but the chaotic situations that develop on-board the ship with a community lead to endless replayability of Barotrauma, and are unmatched by almost every other game on the market.
Players who enjoy survival-growth based games similar to Kenshi and Rimworld will find themselves right at home yet in an extremely unique niche while playing those titles in a brand new multiplayer setting. The addition of the Assistant class alone can be used for party optimization in singleplayer, but more often than not leads to a "class clown" among the friend group in multiplayer, consistently turning the survival horror elements into some of the most comedic gameplay of the last decade.
Barotrauma Monsters and Creatures
The trailers of Barotrauma give a pretty great insight into some of the dangers lurking the waters of Europa, but not nearly the scale to which these pests can lead to human extinction for a wide variety of reasons. Among the scariest for the players is the Husk Monsters of Barotrauma, functioning similar to a zombie survival situation rather than a simple battle to the death. These husk creatures are able to spread their infection to crewmates by simply attacking, and landing a successful bite can mean a guaranteed transfer.
Once a crew member has been infected by the husk, there are two main forms of medicine that can be quickly applied to rid the crew member of the infection, one of which (Calyxanide) is very expensive. Otherwise, many other monsters throughout Europa are very by-the-books "kill or be killed" situations that can regularly cause damage to the exterior of your ship if left unchecked. Definitely consult the Creatures section of the Barotrauma wiki if you're ever confused.
About Shockbyte
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